Westville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Westville, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Westville lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Westville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westville — the short answer
Westville, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Westville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westville's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westville
Each reading below is measured for Westville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestville runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWestville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Westville is in
Westville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Westville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Vermilion County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Westville
Every plant below cleared Westville's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Westville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 1131Brownfields · 350 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6924Brownfields · 550 ft
- Kovanic BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Westville Belgium Sanitary DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Marathon Unit #1771Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Marathon #7114Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Vacketta Ore HUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Westville Comm School DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Casey's General Store #1700Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WESTVILLEPFAS · 0.6 mi
- Chark 1655Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Tom MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westville's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Westville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Westville — Superfund (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (38 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Westville
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westville average
Your land is one point inside Westville
Everything above resolves to Westville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Westville Average
Westville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Westville
- ●One soil character for all of Westville
- ●Frost dates read at Westville's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westville average
How we know this about Westville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Westville’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Westville
When does frost risk typically end in Westville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westville typically lands around Apr 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Westville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westville typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westville sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westville?
The federal record around Westville is a meaningful one — 397 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (231), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Westville?
From about Sep 25 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Westville's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westville's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Westville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Westville's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,074 acres it covers and 397 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 397 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westville's boundary and the 1,074 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Westville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Westville's 1,074 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vermilion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vermilion County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Vermilion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Westville's 1,074 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,074 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Westville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWestville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides